rs, lookouts, and quartermasters. The
cabin watchmen were there, and some of the watch below, among whom were
stokers and coal-passers, and also, a few of the idlers--lampmen,
yeomen, and butchers, who, sleeping forward, had been awakened by the
terrific blow of the great hollow knife within which they lived.

Three carpenters' mates stood by the door, with sounding-rods in their
hands, which they had just shown the captain--dry. Every face, from the
captain's down, wore a look of horror and expectancy. A quartermaster
followed Rowland in and said:

"Engineer felt no jar in the engine-room, sir; and there's no excitement
in the stokehold."

"And you watchmen report no alarm in the cabins. How about the steerage?
Is that man back?" asked the captain. Another watchman appeared as he
spoke.

"All asleep in the steerage, sir," he said. Then a quartermaster entered
with the same report of the forecastles.

"Very well," said the captain, rising; "one by one come into my
office--watchmen first, then petty officers, then the men.
Quartermasters will watch the door--that no man goes out until I have
seen him." He passed into another room, followed by a watchman, who
presently emerged and went on deck with a more pleasant expression of
face. Another entered and came out; then another, and another, until
every man but Rowland had been within the sacred precincts, all to wear
the same pleased, or satisfied, look on reappearing. When Rowland
entered, the captain, seated at a desk, motioned him to a chair, and
asked his name.

"John Rowland," he answered. The captain wrote it down.

"I understand," he said, "that you were in the crow's-nest when this
unfortunate collision occurred."

"Yes, sir; and I reported the ship as soon as I saw her."

"You are not here to be censured. You are aware, of course, that nothing
could be done, either to avert this terrible calamity, or to save life
afterward."

"Nothing at a speed of twenty-five knots an hour in a thick fog, sir."
The captain glanced sharply at Rowland and frowned.

"We will not discuss the speed of the ship, my good man," he said, "or
the rules of the company. You will find, when you are paid at Liverpool,
a package addressed to you at the company's office containing one
hundred pounds in banknotes. This, you will receive for your silence in
regard to this collision--the reporting of which would embarrass the
company and help no one."

"On the contrary, captain, I s